How to demotivate your employees?

• Do not  respect them
• always criticise them
• Do not care about their personal problems
• Do not let them innovate
• Always disregard their suggestions
• Do not keep your promises to them
• Let them work hard on something and then simply destroy it
• do not let them learn
• Tell them that their job is not important for the company
• Do not create any social life at work
• Do not allow them to take any decision
• Do not try to train them
• Ask them to do silly jobs
• Be rude with them
• Never thank any of them
• When someone is sick do not call him
• Do not tell him that you will take a vacation
• Do not make the information available
• Do not have any system

It is very easy to demotivate your employees and it is so easy to motivate them. Why do some managers demotivate their employees?

What does the customer Really need?

You develop a product/information system and you think that you need to improve the quality so that more people will buy your product or use your information system. Then you improve the quality and you get good results. This encourages you to do more quality improvement and then you get better results.

However, sometimes, you improve the quality you get nothing. This is very unusual but I think that it happens becuase you have already reached exceeded the customer expectations regarding quality. So, your quality improvement will not make the customer more willing to buy your product or use your information system.

Sometimes, you get negative feedback from some potential customers/users. You try to satisfy those customers so that they will change their mind and buy your product. However, you may find that they do not react to your improvement regarding their comments. This is a very critical issue. It seems that some potential customers will not buy your product/information system no matter what you do regarding quality. They have other reasons to not use your product. Actually, they didn’t tell you the real reasons and told you some imaginary reasons. Why? Simply they don’t want to tell you the real reasons.

When you develop a product, you make studies and consult the potential customer. Later, you check the negative feedback and try to make changes to cover those comments. However, you should go back first and think if those changes are aligned with your product positioning. You should think whether those changes will have negative effect on other customers.

Improving quality is generally required but you should think deeply whether the customer needs quality improvement or other things. When you get negative  feedback, you should think whether this feedback is real. You should know if those customers may really buy your product or they have some hidden reasons to ignore your product. When you try to improve your product, you should not forget the main concept of the product and the main target customer needs. You should not lose focus. It is about who is our REAL potential customer and what do they REALLY need.

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Advices for new employees

Sometimes one needs advice from more experienced people. That happens when you join a new job especially when you are a recent graduate. I try to list here some advices that may be valuable for young employees:

Business Ethics: Stick to business ethics and don’t listen to bad guys. Do not make any concession on that. If you make one mistake, it will be easy to make ten mistakes. If you don’t make any mistake, it will always be difficult to make the first mistake.

Work hard…don’t lie…don’t cheat…be honest with everybody…be cooperative…don’t use your position for your personal benefits…follow company code of conduct…..

Get to know the organization: In the first days and week try to know many things about the organization: the location of different departments/facilities, the organization structure, the organization culture, the regulations, your job description, the role of every department. This is essential step in order to be able to live and work in that organization.

Get to know your boss and his way of doing business; what he likes and what he does not like. Try to cope with your boss and the organization culture as long as it does not contradict with business ethics and any legal issues.

First Impressions: Unfortunately, first impressions are very important. You shouldn’t say this employee is irresponsible because he made a mistake in his first days, but most people do that. They get an impression in the first days and weeks and then it is difficult to get them change their view.

So, you need to be careful in the first weeks. Follow the organizations rules, dress as required or as reasonable in that culture. Go to work early and don not leave early. Be nice with people. show them that you are serious. Follow the regulations regarding the break time. I am not saying that you’ll cheat them but you just need to be careful because simple things may be taken against you. For example, if ask for permission to come 30 minutes late in your first week, it may be interpreted as if you do not care. However, after few months if you ask to come one hour late, you may be welcomed.

Seek advice: Try to get advice and listen to people but you must have a filter in your mind that saves good advices and negelect bad ones. If you find a mentor that will be great if that mentor is really a mentor i.e. honest and cares about you.

Self Development: You may get training and support from other employees but you need to develop yourself. Search for information. Read the operations/work standard/procedures. Read the manuals. Find books related to what you are doing and red them. Heavily use the Internet to develop your self. Visit the company library.

Team work: Try to support team work. Create that culture if you have subordinates. Try to show your colleagues that you like to be part of the team. Do not hide information to show that you are the only one who knows.

Infromation:We need information in order to do and develop our work. Keep the important information. Do not depend on your memory for two reasons. First, others cannot read your memory. Second, you’ll forget one  day. If the company has a system for filing, reporting, and sharing knowledge then follow it. Otherwise, suggest similar systems in your area.

Build a creative culture: Try to be creative. Search for creative ideas. Encourage your subordinates, if you have any, to be creative. Respect their ideas, discuss with them, reward them.

Don’t make a mistake twice: When you make a mistake then find the root cause and make the necessary countermeasure to prevent yourself from doing that mistake again. Always search for the root cause and the countermeasure that makes it almost impossible for this mistake to happen again.

Manage your time: Don’t waste your time. If you have spare time at work, then try to solve problems, develop new things, learn new skills, train others, read articles related to your job.

Be Organized: Do not have piles of papers on your desk. Have a good filing system. Get prepared prior to every work activity.

Don’t get frustrated: Sometimes you do not like the work for any reason and you cannot find another job, so you have to continue. In that case, you should not allow yourself to get depressed. Try to maximize the good parts of the job and minimize the part that you don’t like. Try to see the good things in your work and use them. Do activities outside work that minimize the bad effect of your job on you. Do things that you like. Do not yield to frustration. You have to continue alive (mentally and phscchologically)  to save your health and your work skills.

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Managerial Balance

Managers sometime focus on one goal and forget other goals or try to achieve one goal regardless of its effect on other goals. For example a manager can focus on control and tries to have as much control as possible. This results in ZERO flexibility, bureaucracy,..and you name it.

If management was about achieving one goal then we would never need a manager but management is not easy because there are many goals, many constraints, and dynamic environment. It is very important to have a reasonable balance between different conflicting goals.

This balance changes from one company to another based on its strategy, product/service, customers…etc. For example, a company that adopts differentiation strategy will spend more on high quality of its services while a company that tries to offer inexpensive service will not spend that much. However, it is not a reasonable balance if we spend more than we can gain.

Examples:

• Company and labor market: A manager may try to pay as less as possible and forgets that he will never get the best qualified people
• Company and customers: A supplier may request Letter of guarantee for every transaction and forgets that customers may go to the other suppliers
• Manager and employees: A manager may insist that a purchasing order should be thoroughly checked by 5 or 6 managers and forgets that the lead time will be very long
• Manager and subordinates: A manager can focus on the relationship with subordinates regardless of the delay and mistakes they make
• Manager and cost control: A manager can focus on cost control and forgets that some expenses will make future saving
• Top management: A top management can focus on short term goals and forget the long term goals

How are you using e-business?

E-business is part of our life. Most companies are using e-business in some or all parts of its business. But the question is: What benefits have you got from using the e-business? Many companies achieved competitive advantage and improved their processes through e-business. Others have applied the e-business without achieving that success. Why did those succeed and those failed? Besides the technical problem that may arise, the following managerial reasons seems to be common in many organizations

• There are many areas in which you can use information systems but you need to have priorities according to your situation, strategy, competitors, customers…This is not an easy task. Where to apply the e-business and how to apply it? It is not something that can be copied. The answer is unique for every company.
• Meeting the customer (user) needs. Many information systems are not considering the users needs. It is very important to conduct system analysis and to understand the users’ needs. It is important to encourage the user to comprehend his needs prior to, during and after developing the system.
• Data base updating. Some companies do not put enough effort in updating the data and make sure the data are correct
• Top management support. Top management has a big role in changing the culture and showing great support to e-business.
• e-business is accelerating the the failed systems. e-business needs some process reengineering to eliminate unnecessary steps and complicated systems. Otherwise e-business will result in automating those bad systems.